*Spoiler Alert* Winner/Loser Revealed, although you probably already know.

This was PC’s first team challenge and the groups were split via kick-ball team picking style best to worst. Chris picked Kirsty then Shakeil. Lesley picked Renato then Mathew.

Marianne picked Debi then Gemma. Further spoiling Kelly, the designers got £300 ($540) for materials!! This didn’t include shoes, just materials, I think that’s a bit excessive for one outfit to be made in 16 hours of studio time.

It was interesting to see how the tree teams prepared, or didn’t, for the designing and this related to the final outcome.

As usual the actual 16 hour design part of the show was edited down to a paltry 10 minutes. This included a jaunt by a designated team member to meet Patrick Cox and pick out a pair of his shoes for the model to wear. Even though Project Catwalk has been pretty subtle with its product tie-ins, this was one of the more questionable ones as we think that Cox’s shoes are to be uterlly tasteless. I guess that it was just a push for a domestic brand.

Unfortunately, all of the designs were weak durring this episode. Marianne, the chosen winner, designed the same dress that she has designed for every other episode. Despite her boring repetition, I think that the early planning executed by Marianne’s team was very helpful in their end product. Chris’s outfit, my favorite of this episode was ok, but definitely not suited in any way to Kelly Osborne’s full-figure. Finally Lesley’s design was plagued by very bad execution. Trompe l’oeil is hard to do well, without looking like a silly fake tuxedo shirt, and without her creative direction the design was a flop. She was definitely right to say that had she done it again she would’ve sent Mathew to get the shoes, so that she could monitor and execute the dress the way that she wanted. She didn’t follow her own sage advice of ‘if you want to things done right you have to do it yourself’. I particularly admired Lesley’s refusal to put blame on Mathew for executing poorly. It’s unfortunate that she was kicked off, but we’re sure that she will go on to do better things in the real world of fashion. One thing that I didn’t care for was Merthyr Tydfil’s ( Julien Macdonald’s real name) characterization fo Lesley as frumpy, I think it’s a bit of base and further proves that under all the glitz and glamour he’s a bit of a douchebag.

That’s all for now, and look for our upcoming exclusive interview with Lesley D.

This episode the designers were given a lesson in fashion by the Sadie Frost and Jemima French of the FrostFrench designer duo. Sadie and Jemima wasted no time getting into the thick of it with the contestants challenging them to describe themselves in a ‘word’. Everyone was able to respond pretty quickly except for Zoe who decided to have some sort of fit about being put on the spot, a sure foreshadowing of troubles to come.

*Spoiler Warning* (Winner and Loser Revealed)

An interesting addition to this episode was a 10 minute mini-challenge judged by FrostFrench where everyone was given the three yards of pink fabric, some pins and a stapler to create something that showed off their creative individuality. This segue was obviously for the TV viewing audience, the closest parallel I can think of is a figure drawing class where the model only poses for ten minutes each and over the course of several hours the students draw a dozen or so rough charcoal drawings. I think that it is rather unfair for all of these designers to be placed in a situation where they only get one chance to do this and be critiqued.

The real challenge for this week was to design a dress based on the word ‘Frisky’. As the designers started to design they were again consulted by Ben Delisi the Project Catwalk version of Tim Gunn. When we were watching the show Amy mentioned that Ben appears to be a ‘fake’ designer created just for the show, personally he reminds me of Ben Stiller in Zoolander.

For the second episode Ben gives Zoe complete direction in the garment design; needless to say the others were none to thrilled and Debi even ‘called Ben out’ confronting him about being biased towards Zoe. All in all in this episode the 10 hour design marathon was edited down to 8 minutes of footage.

As has happened in the past on Project Runway, the fashionistas were challenged to present their designs at Pangea, a smoky nightclub, trying to appeal to a Daily Media gossip columnist. Unlike this year’s comparable episode on PR this wasn’t a tame, well lit, party, it was dark and people got pissed. They all presented their pieces and then each of them talked to the columnist trying to make an impression, while Sadie and Jemima watched on from a corner. I vote Debi for having been the most drunk, which was later confirmed in her spat back at the pad.

On the catwalk, the designs weren’t much to look at, except, of course, for Debi’s horrendous rendering of sorority girl joke shorts. Ass cleavage is so out. The judges having recognized that plumber’s ass is not cool really tore into her and when she was the runner up to the loser she lashed back at them for accusing her of making an unfinished design, and we thought Santino was snippy…

And what’s up with Gemma and Andre’s use of black masks? Kind of weird, right?

This week’s winner, and current blogosphere-voted most cute designer, Mathew was voted winner this week. His dress was ok, but I felt like there were a few who had comparable quality designs.

The loser, and rightfully so, was Zoe, the top her model came out wearing looked like something that Mike Tyson might have worn out before a match. It was pretty obvious when she came down the runway that she was none too pleased with it. During the questioning she even blamed Ben D for telling her what to do, come on now, she knows that she’s the one ultimately responsible. I wish Zoe all the best, the environment of this competition was definitely not where she could have shown off her talent of draping and working a garment over a period of time.

*Spoiler Warning Winner and Loser revealed*

The first challenge was introduced by Isabella Blow, who was wearing an Alexander McQueen piece that really ought to have been left on the runway. The designers had to buy their materials for this dress from the British equivalent of Home Depot ( a take on the grocery store challenge from last years Project Runway). They ran around like wild picking up everything from copper pipe to pieces of sod.

Unlike their American counterparts they had two days to work on their garment and as a result weren’t as crazily pressured as PR’s designers are. Just as in the US the quality of the work varied from bizarre and unwarable, to something that is somewhat flattering and would probably be worn. I thought the grass skirt pictured here, from a polaroid taken before the presentation, was one of my favorites at least in terms of execution, however the judges picked her as the second worst.

This week the one “to be asked to leave the Catwalk” was Rami, who had the best facial hair in the contest, who made a very conceptual and unwearable dress that looked like a pleated tarp with copper pipe running through it. The winner (below) used some grommets (how original) and made a more conventional dress that was indeed wearable, but nothing special (I did like the wrench necklace though).

Overall, I think the show is worth watching because the designers as a group are more personable than those on this season’s PR, even though we still don’t have a clear favorite yet.

Oh, and as you can tell by the title of the post Liz Hurley’s ‘auf wiedersehen’ is ‘fashion has no mercy’.

It was recently brought to my attention that there is a British knockoff of my beloved Project Runway, theirs goes by the fresh name of Project Catwalk. Just like our show, the UK version gives twelve talented and hungry fashion designers the opportunity of a lifetime – a chance to have their collection shown at London Fashion Week. The winner also gets a small pile of money and a mentorship with the Top Shop design team (which is way better than blah Banana Republic). Last year’s Project Runway winner, Jay, didn’t even accept the Banana Republic internship.

The UK’s show is hosted by Elizabeth Hurley, I wonder what her ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ catch phrase is…Apparently she beat out Elle McPherson for the job. Supposedly Elizabeth wanted the job soooo badly that she had been bombarding the producers with phone calls to sell herself. Reality Blurred says Hurley “sent an unbelievably professional video presentation of her work, and has boasted that she can use her celebrity fashion contacts like Donatella Versace to add flavour to the show.” She probably just wanted the chance to publicize her crappy swimwear line, Elizabeth Hurley Beach.